Kalalau Trail - Kauai - August 2017

Burrito

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Sep 7, 2016
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Hope and I have hiked the first 2 miles in on this trail a few times and really enjoyed it. This year we decided to get a permit prior to our Kauai trip and do the full 11 on the Napali coast. The original plan was to spend 4 nights and 5 days, but the day we had planned to set out, it rained so hard they actually had to close the Hanelei bridge due to flooding so it was a no-go...I'm glad I'm actually getting wiser as I get older and making better decisions.

The beauty of that place is everything you could imagine and more. I won't bore you with the logistics of the trail because I'm sure that's been covered on here before. We had a VRBO set for the rest of our stay on Kauai after coming off the trail and the dude whose house it is was nice enough to let us park our car there with our extra luggage in the back. Big score. No need to stress about our car getting broken into at the trail head. The house is about 4 miles from the trail head so we hitched three rides to get there (it's stupid easy to thumb a ride on Kauai...I love it!)

The first two miles was more crowded than I've ever seen it so I was glad to get past that point where the permit is required for a little more isolation. Stunning views the entire 11 miles in. Incredible vistas. We had the waterfall at Hanakoa entirely to ourselves so spent quite a while there swimming and just soaking it all in.

Crawler's ledge was a bit spooky, but I'm not a huge fan of massive exposure so for you more intrepid explorers, it probably wouldn't have phased you.

We hit the beach on our 20th anniversary and had the most incredible spot available to us to set up a tent that I've ever seen....happy anniversary to us :)

Stayed two nights on the beach with a day hike up into the Kalalau valley on our layover day. Completely impossible to describe this place and as with most things, pictures / videos will never do it justice. If you've been thinking about doing this trek, do yourself a favor and force the issue and just make it happen.

We met some really cool folks at the beach, some permanent residents, others just visiting like us, all spectacular people.

After the trek, it only took one hitchhiking leg to get back to the house because the ladies who picked us up were kind enough to take us all the way there.

Can't wait to go back.

Here's one picture from the beach and I've also linked a youtube video with more pics and videos.

YouTube Video:

20170823_185502.jpg
 
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